Cellulose Nanocrystals-Embedded Electrospun Silk Fibroin Nanofibers

초록

Recently considerable effort has been directed toward the silk fibroin use as a biotechnological material in biomedical applications on account of its excellent biodegradabilitya nd biocompatibility.H owever,t he crystallinityo f the silk fibroind ecreases during the process of the regenerating silk fibroin, resulting in a deterioration of the mechanical properties of regenerated silk fibroin compared to natural cocoon fiber. Therefore, the possibility of producing silk fibroin-base biomaterials by blending with other polymers or adding reinforcements is of great interest. In this study, silk fibroin/ cellulose nanocrystals nanocomposites were prepared by electrospinningsi. The morphology and microstructure of the electrospun nanofibers were characterized using field emissions canninge lectronm icroscopya nd transmissione lectronm icroscopy. The tensile properties of the nanofibers were enhanced by the incorporation of a small amount of cellulose nanocrystals.